Ringing the changes

摘要

"Game change", the account by John Heilemann and Mark Halpe-rin of the 2008 American presidential race, is high-quality political porn. It is sleazy, personal, intrusive, shocking-and, let's be honest, horribly compulsive. It is also a thoroughly researched, well-paced and occasionally very amusing read.rnThe book has already landed Harry Reid, the majority leader of the Senate, in the soup for privately referring to Barack Obama as "light-skinned" and devoid of "Negro dialect". It deals some heavy blows to the reputations of most of the characters (although Mr Obama comes out of it pretty much unscathed). And on January 11th, the day it went on sale after being serialised in both the New York Times and the Times in London, the book shot straight to the top of the bestseller list at Amazon.com. Anyone who follows American politics will want to read it.